<p>Missypie, I am the same way. It may be simple homemade, but that is one of my standards.</p>
<p>I’m with Missiepie as well, especially for potlucks. Everyone is busy, and if no one goes to the trouble, then we have a potluck where the best item on it is the box of pizza someone ordered… It feels to me like it is not fair to others who bring good food to always take the easy way out. Okay every once in a while (eg, been traveling for work until the night before or something). But I try to make the time unless my schedule is truly horrible that week.</p>
<p>Not the Halloween costumes, though, since I can’t sew :)</p>
<p>Mom2Mom: Would you consider sharing your recipe for the Chicken Tortilla Soup or was it tortellini? THanks.</p>
<p>If you can’t afford or don’t want a cleaning lady, ask your husband if there is some chore he could take on…give him his choice. Years ago when it was difficult for me to shop with toddlers, my husband took on grocery shopping and he turned out to be really good at it. I give him a list, and he gets every item on it AND the items he knows we use that I forgot, such as paper plates, or something to go along with an item on the list (i.e., I list hamburger patties but no buns, he gets buns too). At first I gave him a very precise list with the brands I desired; he eventually learned the brands (though if I don’t specify, he still buys cheap store-brands I used to avoid). Then I unpack and put away so I can see what we’ve got. This saves me 90 minutes a week.
We also keep a whiteboard in kitchen where everyone writes items they want. If he’s out of town, I’ll do the groceries and I can see what’s new, etc.
He also took over bathroom cleaning when we let our cleaning lady go to increase our college savings, he’s not as good at that chore, but I’ve learned to lower my standards there.</p>
<p>I guess what a lot of us are saying is to view almost all of what you’re doing now as optional. You can’t choose everything on the list, but choose what you like to do best and lower your standards, hire, or eliminate the rest.</p>
<p>One person’s list might look like:
Do - pack lunches for child for school
cook in quantity over the weekend
Hire - cleaning lady
Eliminate - PTO activities</p>
<p>Another list might look like:
Do - serve as PTO officer
clean own house
Eliminate - packed lunches (buy at school instead)
teaching Sunday School</p>
<p>Also, entertain only if you really really enjoy it. I am of the “to every thing there is a season” philosophy. I enjoy entertaining a little bit, but mostly it is stressful and a whole lot of work. If we even have one family over on Saturday night, I know that that will cause me to spend Friday night and all of Saturday cleaning and cooking. It’s just not worth it. There will be many empty nest days where I’ll want to spend the time to entertain.</p>
<p>Bluejay
I’m happy to share the reciepe, it looks like more effort than it actually takes. ENJOY!
I adapted this Chicken Tortilla Soup from America’s Test Kitchen:</p>
<p>In the Food Prcessor:
2 tomatoes cored and quartered
1 whole onion, peeled, halved, cored
1 jalapeno chile, split and seeded (original reciepe calls for 1/2)
4 or so cloves of garlic, I put them through the garlic press into the food processor
1 chipolte chile en adobo, plus about a spoon fulll of the adobo sauce
3 or so sprigs of cilantro</p>
<p>whorl in the food processor until smooth. Pour into freezer bag and freeze flat. When ready to use, heat olive oil in bottom of dutch oven (stock pot would likely be fine), add tomatoe mix, cook until melts then until color changes, about 10 minutes or so after melting. You will want to stir it periodically. Add about 8 cups chicken broth (homemade for canned), simmer to blend flavors about 15 minutes, add chicken (if frozen, you will need to bring the soup up to a boil before you add the chicken).</p>
<p>Chicken breasts, I just poach them with some salt and pepper, then cool and shred (about 3 large split chicken breasts). If I am going to freeze it, I just put the shredded chicken into another freeezer bag.</p>
<p>To serve, either bake up your own Tortilla strips (follows), or use good tortilla chips. I serve it with additional chopped cilantro, sour cream, lime, avocado, whatever we have on hand.</p>
<p>Tortilla strips: heat oven to 425, cut tortillas into strips (I use a pizza cutter), spray with olive oil, or drizzle it over the strips and mix. Roast about 10-14 minutes, shake about halfway. Season with salt, place on paper towel lined plates.</p>
<p>Um, yeah, that does look like it takes a lot of effort. You’ll just have to make enough for all of us.</p>
<p>I’m happy to make plenty–I know it looks like a ton of work, but really it’s dump it all into the food processor and whorl. In the meantime, poach chicken (or get a rotissere chicken, pull the meat off and shred). Cook the tomatoe mix, dump in chicken broth, heat and add the chicken. The rest of it is all garnishes…
I don’t do the tortilla strips, I burn those every single time. In the rare event I don’t burn them to a crisp, they taste great. But so do the chips I buy at Sprouts, with no burn risk.
If the bags are in the freezer dinner is on the table in 20 minutes…and DD will eat it.</p>
<p>“You can’t choose everything on the list, but choose what you like to do best and lower your standards, hire, or eliminate the rest.” - Completely agree and has operated under priority list my whole life, moreover, made sure that D. undestands it also. I told her that her goal is not to learn household chores but position herself to be able to hire. I hope she will follow, as kids and family time and your own well being and taking care of are much higher on my list than cleanning and shopping, but I refuse to live in dirty house.</p>
<p>Thanks for those tips! Mom2m that sounds good, although I did tell my hub today (as we discussed his desire for me to work full time) that since he has a flair for cooking, perhaps he should pick up doing a few meals here and there. He’s actually quite adventuresome and talented in the kitchen (me, not so much). </p>
<p>MiamiDAP–“I told her that her goal is not to learn household chores but position herself to be able to hire.” Interesting! I feel guilty [inadequate?] about having a cleaning lady occasionally, but I didn’t grow up with one. But, that arrangment can make life easier…</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the recipe. Can you educate me on the chipolte and the adobo sauce how and where to buy, brands, jars…Thanks again!</p>
<p>In a hurry today but after 17 years of this, I can now say that what worked best for me was lowering my standards in all areas of my life except in the care of my kid, my self and my spouse. Or, really, the list goes myself, my kid and my spouse. Gotta put the oxygen mask on yourself first, then the kid, as they say when you fly.</p>
<p>I was a type A whirlwind before the kid was born and I found that the only place that the world really would stop if I didn’t do my job to the best of my ability at least 90% of the time was at home.</p>
<p>In otherwords, parenting was a real crush to the old ego, but that was okay. I think parenting has made me far more productive because perfectionism had to fall by the wayside. By the way, I’m not a heart surgeon or something similiar! I think the path you need to carve out is very different for different women (& men.)</p>
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<p>I’m a perfectionist by nature but have learned to live with mess and havoc. I am very aware that when I get back to the point of my life where all the magazines are perfectly arranged and stay that way all week, the house will be quiet and I’ll miss the kids and the mess.</p>
<p>missypie,
You are right not to worry about that, I went further though, streamlining life at home so that we do not have magazines at all to worry about them laying around. I would eliminate much more, but peaceful life with my H is a higher priority.</p>
<p>Lol, in my desire to save money last fall, I let all my subscriptions lapse except Newsweek. I recently re-subsribed to one that I missed when a really good offer crossed my desk. But yes, the magazine count is way down. (They were all decorator magazines anyway and they just made me feel bad about how “lived in” my own home is!)</p>
<p>The Chipolte in Adobo Sauce is sold in the Hispanic foods seciton of the grocery store—look where they have the salsa. The cans are small (7 oz) and each can has multiple peppers in it. I buy whatever is on sale, Herendaz, San Marcos, Embasa–even not on sale they are less than $2. I just stick some Glad Press and Seal to the top of the can and put in the refrig if I am not making multiple batches. The sauce is just in the can with the peppers. I don’t measure it, I just spoon some out with a teaspoon (unless I’m baking, I sort of “wing it” most of the time, but no one is complaining). The peppers look like small wilted cherry tomatoes…I was sort of suprized the first time I used them.</p>
<p>Thanks for taking the time to explain!</p>
<p>For Ready to eat food from store, Costco is my place, love everything there and it provides us lunch on Sunday just by trying all that they have out to try. I love them! Incredible quality, unbeatable price.</p>
<p>Jolynne, I also returned to work recently after several years at home. It is a lot of juggling and for me the only way I can function is by using lists and schedules. I get up early and run a load of laundry before I leave for work. I am good friends with my crockpot. I get my kids to pitch in when they can. I get most of it under control and then take some time off for me.</p>
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<p>That is so important. Even on really busy weekends, I’ll set the timer on the microwave and nap on the couch for half an hour. My attitude is so much better when I have some down time, even if it’s only a small amount of time.</p>